petrol pumps

Our man in Havana

Why are the hold on devices broken off most petrol pumps? It's a pain in the hole having to hold the handle in whilst 40 litres is put into the tank.

I only know of one small petrol place that still has theirs working properly.

Seth Brundle

I think it is because some idiots forgot they were filling petrol or something.

littlejukka

i've only ever seen them on the odd diesel pump. most motorists are too stupid to use them safely. 40 litres might take 90 seconds to pump at the longest. if your fragile little hands can't bear the pressure of this i'd imagine holding a steering wheel or using a gear lever might be too much for you and you (and the rest of us) would be better off if you get a taxi home and forget about your motoring career.

Our man in Havana

I like to do other things whilst getting petrol like cleaning the headlights etc. Your abusive comments are not welcome!

Lorax

Didnt even know such a thing existed! Ive only been driving about 8 months tho

maidhc

Put a wedged shape piece of wood in the boot.

Problem solved.

Our man in Havana

they were standard issue and still are in most parts of the world except Ireland.

Our man in Havana

maidhc wrote:

Put a wedged shape piece of wood in the boot.

Problem solved.

Thanks for the tip, maidhc.

Seth Brundle

1st and last ban warning littlejukka

maidhc

Bond-007 wrote:

Thanks for the tip, maidhc.

We have our own tap at home without a stop and without a plastic grip. It gets bloody freezing in the winter and can take 15 mins to fill a tractor.

patrickc

its very rare to find them now... it's a nuisance i agree with the OP

Mahatma coat

Jaysus, lads lads lads, you will find that the petrol cap that you take out can be used to wedge the handle part in place, I can vouch for this on the 318i, the toyota Landcruiser Diesel (dunno bout the petrols but I would assume its the same) Diesel Nissan patrols, and Ford Falcons, check it out on whatever you drive next time you get fuel, oh and to the OP, 40L, Pah, I scoff in your general direction, the Landcruiser has been kitted out for the Ausie Outback and takes 160L a pop (2 long range tanks), and often you can come close to runnin dry between servos

fletch

Yeh I fill my car every time and some pumps can give ya a right pain in the hand! I have never found a garage that has a hold-on device on the pumps.

Gatster

I think it is because some idiots forgot they were filling petrol or something

most motorists are too stupid to use them safely

All the ones I've ever used abroad stop filling on their own when the tank is full, so I don't think there is any issue there. Very useful if you have a big tank

kippy

Hmmm,
Most places I use (in Galway) seem to have them....
The auto cut out mechanism on them usually stops any spills happening but they should be used with care anyway.
Kippy

Stephen

I've only ever seen them on the continent, very handy though.

endplate

Gatster wrote:

All the ones I've ever used abroad stop filling on their own when the tank is full, so I don't think there is any issue there. Very useful if you have a big tank

If you hold the nozzle at an angle sometimes the cut off fails and you have fuel spilling or if you park on the wrong side of the pump ie you have to stretch the fuel line accross the car the nozzle can sometimes be upsidedown and cut off can fail to work. Unfortunatly it's not fool proof and I think the handle locks might have been disabled for that reason.

I was filling a tractor once and it had the handle lock with no cut off. It started to overfill and my reaction was to pull the nozzle out and it made a mess cos I wasn't used to using it

furtzy

Got covered in diesel with a faulty cut-out on a pump in the Maxol garage at Palmerstown....very wary of them now

crosstownk

I contacted Statoil about this some time ago. Aparently it is illegal for Irish filling stations to have this locking mechanism. I never investigated further, and tbh, I'd actually like to know why, as every other EU country I've been to has them working. I must try and dig out the Statoil email and post the contents. It's on my computer at home so I'll post it later..................

Sam Vimes

woule it not be open to 15 year old gob****es to mess with? before you build anything in ireland that will used by the public you have to think "will some idiot destroy this for the laugh".

or does someone in the office have to activate the pump or something? that'd really be the only way to get rid of the scumbag factor

fletch

Commander Vimes wrote:

woule it not be open to 15 year old gob****es to mess with?

You could say that exact same about a pump without it.

Gatster

It probably would/could go catastrophically wrong - never had any problems myself and nearly always use the facility if it's there, but still watch it...

unklerosco

crosstownk wrote:

I contacted Statoil about this some time ago. Aparently it is illegal for Irish filling stations to have this locking mechanism. I never investigated further, and tbh, I'd actually like to know why, as every other EU country I've been to has them working. I must try and dig out the Statoil email and post the contents. It's on my computer at home so I'll post it later..................

Strange... All the truck pumps have em, i just click it n get back into the truck till its done.

I'd like to see pumps with preset payments. Put the pump in n press €5,10,15,20,30,40 n it does it automatically.... I've seen pumps in spain that do it..

fletch

Aside: What do people do when they want to fill their car at a prepay pump and are using a credit card to pay. I always fill my car so can't prepay as such. The last time the guy insisted I leave my credit card with him while I filled. Needless to say I wasn't very happy!

craichoe

I never leave anyone fill my car,

Ever since the whole incident of some 16 year old filling my bike ... then saying .. sorry .. i bent your key .. its stuck in the lock ..

Lucky i had my toolkit with me !

Cormic

unklerosco wrote:

I'd like to see pumps with preset payments. Put the pump in n press €5,10,15,20,30,40 n it does it automatically.... I've seen pumps in spain that do it..

That is a great idea. I like to see this too.

MAYPOP

unklerosco wrote:

I'd like to see pumps with preset payments. Put the pump in n press €5,10,15,20,30,40 n it does it automatically.... I've seen pumps in spain that do it..

Esso and Jet used to have these back in the day, very handy indeed.

MarkR

That's actually been buggin me for a while, I fill up 2-3 times a week and I always check to see if it has one, but not yet! All petrol though, maybe i'd have more luck with diesel..

mickjohnlong

afaik its something to do with fire safety as in if the pump handle falls out of the car and the hold on is still on the petrol will just keep pumping out but i could be wrong i heard that from someone who use to own a petrol station

dak

Some Garages in Ireland had petrol pumps with a locking mechanism 25 years ago . I did my stint on the pumps one summer and they were very handy. They cut off automatically as soon as the tank is full. There probabley is a safety issue if they fell onto the ground and continued pumping but that could only most likely happen if you drove off with the pump attached I guess

netwhizkid

I have never come across these in Ireland yet, but they are handy; I have seen them in New York a few times. But the whole Gas Station culture is much different over there. You must pay before filling first and say $20 of gas is all that will be pumped or whatever amount you bought. Just put in the nozzle and and put on the clicky and away it goes.

I remember "back in the day" at about 12 or 13 when my parents used to drive a Diesel car (before they got company vehicles) and usually on a Sunday evening I was given the job of filling the car as we had a 1,000ltr Tank of Diesel for Bulk Buying. Anyway when the Tank would start going low it often took nearly an hour to fill the Car as it would be trickling away slower than you'd p*ss nearly as it was only gravity flow.

Anyway I'd always wedge in a special rectangle of Iron I had for the Job which was actually a massive washer of something. Problem solved and you'd hear the gurgling as it was filling. I'd first test how long it would take to fill a litre into a milk bottle and multiply the seconds by 60litres as was the Car tank size and set a baking timer to go off then. The ingenuity of a 12 yrs old